


and all the years we can count

by TheUniqueLee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Sheith69min, middle aged, prompt:sailboat, shiro is just sappy in love, they've been married almost 30 years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25368685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUniqueLee/pseuds/TheUniqueLee
Summary: Kosmo wants to play in the water, Keith wants to untangle his hair and Shiro wants to stay in love.Written for the Sheith 69 min challenge Prompt “Sailboat.” It’s set over 30 years after the end of the show where Keith and Shiro have been married for almost as long.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	and all the years we can count

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't done a 69 min challenge in so long and I'm not 100% happy with this but I finished and I'm posting it and that's all there goddamn is.  
> I didn't clean this up in time to have a beta look at it so excuse any typos, etc etc.

Shiro watched as Keith untangled his messy braid, the flyaway strands whipping around in the breeze. The water dropping off his fingers as they continued to work through the knotted and tangled mess. Kosmo whined apologetically next to him and Keith just smiled and patted the giant space wolf on the head. 

Keith wasn't upset, how could he be, Kosmo had just wanted to play with him in the water. Keith had just wished he had been given more warning, or any warning, before he was suddenly in the water. Shiro had laughed, how could he not, they looked hilarious and Kosmo would never let Keith be in danger so Keith drowning wasn't a concern. 

The two had played in the water for a while before eventually having Kosmo jump them back on the ship where Shiro had been waiting with a towel for each. Keith had sat down on his while Shiro got to work helping Kosmo dry off. Over the decades he had gotten bigger and fluffier and was prone to just jumping into any bit of water he saw at any given point of time. 

Keith couldn't convince Kosmo to let himself get fully shaved, he barely liked them coming at him with the brush and trimming scissors, and after so many years they just gave up. And started to keep a towel or portable blow-dryer on hand whenever they went anywhere. Kosmo could end up in water even when they were visiting the old shack out in the desert, it was wiser to just be prepared for anything. 

Kosmo, with the aid of Shiro and the nice fluffy cosmos themed towel, shook himself dry enough before jumping to the roof of the sail boat's cabin and resigned himself to laying in the sun to finish the job. Shiro tossed the wet towel over an unused chair and watched Keith instead. 

If he had been younger he would have asked Keith if he wanted help and then made a more tangled knotted mess then the loose braid already was. Somehow in the almost 3 decades they had spent married Shiro had never managed to understand how long hair worked, forever grateful he preferred keeping his short instead. 

His mind briefly traveled to Keith’s 28th birthday, when he had decided the only present he wanted, was for the two of them plus Kosmo of course, to spend a weekend in the woods. The problem had come from Keith spraining his shoulder the first night there, falling over the firewood he had placed because Shiro had thought sneaking up on him had been a smart idea. 

He'd been able to enjoy most activities, he just hadn't been able to lift his arm high enough to tightly braid his hair and he hated, absolutely  loathed , having a loose braid when walking through trees. It always seemed to get caught on every little branch there was. Shiro attempted to braid it for him, an apology for causing the mess in the first place, but Shiro didn't understand how to make a ponytail, let alone braid. 

He did try and it resulted in Keith asking Pidge to help him untangle the knotted mess of a bun when they went back home. Katie had of course laughed at them the entire time she combed the mess out and for the month after, but they had kept it a secret from Lance which had been the most important thing. He would still be making fun of them if he knew. Pidge at least only made fun of them when they got drunk off their ass and remembered it which, thankfully, had only been twice since it happened. 

Keith tilted his head back and shook his head, his long swaying back and forth, before reaching up and doing what Shiro could only describe as fluffing it out. Keith's fingers reached across his scalp, picking hair up and shaking it out as hid fingers traveled through it. What that did, Shiro didn't truly know, but he liked watching the sun catching off Keith’s hair, the leftover wetness sparkling. 

"Maybe I should cut it," Keith said as he continued to finger-comb his hair, smirking at the pained sound Shiro made. 

"It's your hair and you can of course do whatever is comfortable but I also really hope you don't." 

It was something Keith had been mentioning wanting to do on and off for the last few years and Shiro had been all but begging him not too. Keith wouldn't, he liked his hair being so long and he had maintained it for this long so he wasn't cutting it for any reason but, he also wasn't happy about the vanity he had attached to his hair. Specifically to the hair color. 

"Well not everyone was prepared to become white before they turned 30 you know" Keith quipped, holding a section of hair from his head. Almost all of the section was white or some strands were just starting to turn. Keith frowned at them as he looked before throwing the section over his shoulder to gather all of his hair together to start on a new braid. 

"I do admit my circumstances are different but also, I think you would look great with white hair." 

"Is that your vanity and need to have somebody with white hair around again?" 

Shiro attempted to look innocent as he shrugged his shoulders. Keith merely rolled his eyes and finished braiding his hair. 

When he was done he patted the open space next to him and Shiro of course went over to sit with his husband. Keith wrapped his hand in Shiro’s and the two looked out at the water for a moment. The sound of the waves, the sea life, and the wind their only companions now. 

"Keith," Shiro spoke quietly, in a tone that Keith knew to be nervous but had no idea why Shiro would be nervous. "I want to talk to you about something." 

"Ok." 

"I know our 30th anniversary is soon and I want to do something special for it." Shiro got to one knee, still holding's Keith hand while showing off a ring box in the other. "Keith Shirogane Kogane, will you marry me again?" 

"What?" Keith asked, a smile on his face as he got to his knees to look at Shiro properly. 

"Let's renew our vows! We can do it all again, older, wiser, we let hunk be the best man and not lance-" Keith gave a bark of laughter at this. "-and we can I don't know, have hunk make that giant cake he wanted last time or have something small. We can go all out or we can have it at the shack or-" 

"I get it, I get it," Keith said laughing. He smiled as he reached up for Shiro’s face, feeling the two-day-old stubble on under this thumb as he swiped it across Shiro’s cheek. "You sure? You really wanna marry me again?" 

"Keith, I told you then, it's you and me against the universe forever. I meant forever. I'm not giving up on you." 

Keith's smile wobbled a bit as he leaned in and kissed Shiro, as sweet and gentle as their first before grabbing the hand that Shiro was using to hold the ring box. 

"Let me try it on." 

"Ok, but you can't get mad about it," Shiro told him, opening it to reveal a simply designed ring with a very large stone inlaid. "I know you prefer simple things, and I love our bands but I thought that now that we're a bit older and not as field active anymore you might...be ok... with a stone." 

Keith shook his head at Shiro’s nervous tone before giving him a quick kiss. 

"Your's better have a giant stone too you know." 

Shiro smiled and placed the ring on Keith’s finger, fitting it right over the top of the simple wedding bands he had placed all those years ago. Kosmo teleported next to Keith and nudged his hand before dropping a similar ring box onto it. Keith smiled at both of them before opening the box and seeing the exact same ring in Shiro’s size. 

Keith chuckled the entire time he was putting the ring on Shiro’s finger, slipping it right over top the others, before pulling Shiro in for another kiss. 

  


  


  


**Author's Note:**

> It's been a hot minute but I saw the return of the 69min challenges and I thought, hell yeah I got an idea for that. I'm in the middle of rewriting/ going back too/ polishing up some old sheith fics so feel free to follow me on my writing [tumblr](https://uniqueleewritten.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/TheUniqueLee) and there's some other cool stuff on my [carrd](https://theuniquelee.carrd.co/)


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